The Tracking Device

Written by: JuliaFC

Beta-read by: Agrestebug, Speckleflower, Amberlambda, Mini Noire, genxha and missnoodles

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

oOo

Chapter 5 - Decisions, Doubts and… Dates

Marinette said goodnight to her parents, after persuading them again that there was nothing at all going on between her and Chat Noir, and that the hero must really have thought that Ladybug was in danger. Then she turned off her light and sighed.

"He called me M'lady," she whispered.

Tikki came out from behind one of the presses and floated in front of her nose. "He saw the miracle box. He opened it, Marinette!"

"This is a disaster, Tikki! He knows. He knows my identity! What am I going to do?" Marinette's hands flew to her temples as her eyes became as big as saucers. "I can't bear to lose him. We've been together from the start. He's my best friend, Tikki. He saved my life more times than I can count. We complete each other. He's always there for me, to take me out of my hole if I feel I can't take it any longer. I wouldn't be able to think of anyone else being Chat Noir!" Tears were rolling out her eyes and down her cheeks.

"You don't have to take his miraculous away, Marinette!" The red kwami stroke her cheek gently. "Those were Master Fu's rules. Now you're the guardian. If you decide you want him to know, and you too want to know who he is, it's your rule, your decision."

"But Master Fu had a point. What if Hawkmoth gets ahold of one of us and uses them to get to the other?" She was sobbing quietly into her pillow. "And Chat Blanc… he knew who I was and that knowledge could have caused him to get akumatised!"

Tikki sighed and shook her head slowly. "Marinette, be reasonable. I doubt that the mere knowledge that you're Ladybug caused Chat Noir to get akumatised. You're a good friend to him and he's shown you a side of himself that he still hadn't shown to Ladybug, the day the ice cream man was akumatised. People don't tend to do that unless they think very highly of the other person and trust them completely." She stroked her cheek again. "I'm sure that something else broke his heart, not the fact that he knew your identity."

"He said that our love had done it." Marinette sniffed loudly.

"I wouldn't believe everything that a person who's been akumatised would say," mused Tikki. "I'm not saying that he lied, but his judgement was obviously tarnished. You worry too much."

"What should I do then?" Marinette mused. "He knows who I am. Should I ask him to show me who he is?"

"Do you think that the water is boiling, Marinette? Or just simmering?" asked the kwami.

Marinette sighed. "It's hard to tell, Tikki!" She sighed again. "It's hard to tell."

"Then, don't demand anything." Tikki looked at her wisely. "Just wait and see what happens. But if Chat Noir decides that he wants to show you, maybe accept without fighting him. Your miraculous and his are most powerful when you're both balanced. Right now, with him knowing your identity but you kept in the dark, the balance is compromised. That's even more dangerous than you two knowing each other's identity."

Marinette hugged Tikki softly and lied down in bed, so drained by the events that she fell asleep almost instantly.

oOo

Chat Noir jumped from rooftop to rooftop hastily, until he landed in his room through his open window. He stood and jumped flat on his bed, without dropping his transformation. He knew it wasn't fair on Plagg. The black kwami must be tired and hungry. But the last thing he wanted right now was to listen to his justifiable remarks and listen to him cackle at the memory of the embarrassing situation he had found himself in.

Marinette's parents were… something else. That was for sure. They were lovely… but definitely something else. How was he supposed to look at Marinette in the eye the following day at school? They were talking about sex! His face felt warm at the mere recollection of what they'd said. So embarrassing! He wanted to dig a hole on the ground and hide. He cupped his hands over his eyes and cringed.

Eventually though, he started feeling sorry for Plagg, so he called off his transformation with a curt, "Claws in." Plagg appeared and dropped dramatically on his bed, next to him.

"What's your excuse for waiting so long to drop your transformation?" he scolded Adrien.

Adrien sighed. "I didn't want you to tell me off," he said truthfully.

The black kwami flew in front of his face and pouted. "That's not fair, Adrien."

"I know, sorry," he admitted. "And I know you've told me not to do it and I should have listened, Plagg. But… I was right. That was the miracle box. Marinette is Ladybug."

The kwami's pout became stronger. "Yes. What are you going to do now?"

"Do you think she will take the ring from me?" He looked at the ring and glanced guiltily at his black, furry friend.

As much as Plagg annoyed him sometimes, Adrien still loved him. He was his only real friend and confidante who understood him completely. And although his dry sense of humour and his snarky words were all but comforting most times, the little creature knew when he seriously needed his help. He would be devastated to lose him. And to lose the freedom the black cat's miraculous gave him. He felt a jealousy pang even at the mere thought of someone else being the Black Cat and protecting his Lady.

"No idea," admitted Plagg, sounding a little worried himself by the thought. "It's all up to Pigtails. She's the guardian now… it's her rule, her choice. You might be lucky."

"Why? She's always been so adamant that she wanted to keep her identity a secret! How can it be lucky for me that she's the one who decides?" Adrien's voice was cracking a little bit.

Plagg sighed. "Did you already forget the conversation between Pigtails and Reporter-girl? She loves you. Why would she want to get rid of you?" The kwami shrugged and uttered a frustrated moan. "I've told you plenty of times. You'll have better luck dealing with cheese."

Adrien's eyes rolled up. Plagg and his cheese. But hopefully, he had a point. "Does it mean that I need to tell her who I am now? Otherwise, how would she know?"

"I can't help you with that, kid. It's your choice." Plagg flew to the press that held his cheese and disappeared inside.

oOo

So, that's how he decided to stick the post-it to her tablet. Or rather, ask Plagg to do it by bribing him with a particularly well-seasoned wheel of Camembert. And now there he was, sitting atop Montparnasse Tower, staring at the city lights slowly switching on and at the shades of gold and red of the sunset slowly fading into crimson and indigo. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the air was nice and warm.

"Little kitty on the roof, all alone without his Lady…"

He heard the sound of the yoyo zipping around, and he knew that Ladybug had arrived even before hearing the soft thump behind him. He turned around towards her, totally aware of the look of pure shock that was spreading across her face. Even with the backlight of the setting sun, she knew perfectly well who was in front of her.

"A-Adrien…" He heard her say softly. A gloved hand reaching her mouth. "What… are you…"

He smiled a toothy smile and showed her a bottle of lemonade and two glasses. "Did you bring the croissants?" And then he watched, as the gleam of understanding spread all over her face. Her eyes widened in shock and she started walking backwards.

"No. That's… impossible…"

His smile fell. She was still shocked. Why was she still shocked? He thought she would be happy! "Bugaboo?" he said. "What's wrong?" He saw tears in her eyes and he got off the bannister he was sitting on and walked towards her.

"I…I came here with all intention of telling you off. I wanted to kick your arse and make you pay for having come into my room and looked through my stuff. And why did you do that, Chaton?" She gulped as she said that as if she still couldn't believe that the nickname belonged to him.

"Open your Bugphone," he said softly. Her eyebrows furrowed into a frown, but she did as he asked and opened up her device. He moved next to her, not failing to note that she was stiffening and getting flustered as he did that. "Bugaboo… it's me. Don't panic please."

She blushed some more. "I'm not panicking."

"Right…" He chuckled. "You're so funny, Marinette. Adorably funny. Please relax, I'm not going to eat you, I pawmise." As he said that, his amused gaze locked into hers and he felt butterflies in his stomach as he stared into those gorgeous bluebell eyes. "Get to the tracking device and I will show you something clawsome."

She gave him a curt look and messed with the screens of her phone, reaching the function of the tracking device. "Now what?" she asked.

"Look here," he pointed at the 'last seen' tab, and the 'history' tab. She tapped on the first one and it showed a green and black icon placed straight atop Montparnasse tower. But then, when she tapped on the history tab, her eyes went wide in amazement. There were dozens and dozens of green paw icons, placed straight on the Agreste mansion, and some instead were on top of Collège Francois Dupont. "If you'd seen that, what would you have thought?"

"What is this feature? I've never seen it before!" She didn't answer his question and he was perfectly aware of that.

"Plagg explained to me that our communicators are what our phone becomes when it merges with the miraculous," he explained. "I did a bit of research when I discovered this and found out that Google has just introduced a new feature for Google Maps. It tracks the places where you go and where you were last seen, like a sort of diary of the locations you visited. Don't quote me on this, but… I think it's the way our communicator has integrated this new feature."

Marinette's eyes went wide. "But that's terrible. If Hawkmoth got a hold of our communicators he would discover our identities!"

"I hadn't thought of that…" he admitted, bringing a hand to his chin and frowning a little. "But you must admit that it could be helpful if it ever happened that one of us was kidnapped, forced to drop their transformation and held hostage."

"That's true," she said softly. "So… you saw my last seen icon coming up every time at the bakery, didn't you?" He nodded. "And you had to come and check for yourself whether it was really me." He nodded again.

"You could just like cakes and biscuits very much!" He laughed. "And Plagg was trying to trick me by saying that you may have needed to buy cookies to recharge Tikki. So yes, I had to check. I'm sorry…" He blushed. "Now your parents think that you're in a relationship with a weirdo who goes around town wearing a black catsuit."

She sniggered. "Well… he's my partner… I may not be in a relationship with him…"

"Yet," he interrupted her. He saw her face get more flushed, and he smiled his Cheshire grin.

"Oh please. That smile is way too Chat Noir-ish to be on Adrien's face." She gently pushed his shoulder. "And I still haven't forgiven you for what you did. That was really terrible, Chaton. And so not you… so not both sides of you. Entering my room like a thief! You will need to work hard to make it up to me. And I told you to get rid of that smile. It's too Chat Noir on you."

"That's because I'm Chat Noir…" The Cheshire grin didn't go off his face. In fact, it became wider.

"Yes. I need to come to terms with this truth. Give me some time…" She kept staring at the little paws on her screen surrounding the Agreste mansion, in total disbelief.

"And I'm really sorry, Bugaboo. I don't know what came over me. I know I did something terribly wrong and I'm not at all justifying myself for having done it. I will do whatever you want me to do to show you that I'm sorry."

She gave him a sly look and a devious smile. "I may have a few ideas…"

"I'm looking forward to it…" Again, the Cheshire grin. He was sorry, he truly was. He had been questioning himself even as he did it, and he knew that Plagg had been right, that he had gone a little bit too far. He expected some sort of punishment… as long as it wasn't related to his food because his stomach was starting to rumble a bit.

"M'lady… not to change the subject but… did you bring the croissants?" He wiggled his eyebrows expectantly.

"You don't deserve them." Just his luck. Was this really going to be his punishment? She waved a paper bag under his nose. It smelled divine, even without the added senses of the cat.

He attempted to snatch the bag from her hands, and she kept moving it away. He pouted. Was his lady really that cruel to punish him by not giving him his beloved croissants? He did feel guilty. But he was also hungry…

"Come on, M'lady… I know I have done something I shouldn't have done. But even you… are not a complete angel!" he finally said out of exasperation.

Ladybug hid the bag of croissants behind her back and glared at him. "What do you mean, Chaton?"

"I heard that you stole my phone once and deleted one of my messages on my voicemail!" Ladybug's face became the colour of her suit. Her sheepish look encouraged him to continue. "That was a nice nickname, by the way. 'Hot stuff'. I wish I did listen to that message, you know." Her face managed to become an even deeper shade of red. Encouraged by her embarrassment, he wiggled his eyebrows and gave her a flirty look. "It's not a compliment I get every day!"

"Adrien!" She boomed. "Did you eavesdrop my conversation with Alya?"

"Uh… I may have… a little…" he confessed. Now his face felt warm again under her angry glare.

"Oh my God…" She covered her face with one of her hands, while the other was still hiding the bag of croissants on her back. "What else have you done that I should know about?"

"What else have you done that I should know about?" He looked up as his finger tapped regularly on his chin. "Let me see… you did enter my room once, to drop a present. And the fan club in Brazil was the worst excuse ever, by the way. It took me five minutes to check that it didn't exist."

Ladybug was still covering her face with her hand. "Oh please stop…" she muttered. "You knew that it wasn't true and you didn't say anything? You silly cat..." Then with a stern gesture, she moved the hand that held the bag of croissants right in front of his face. "There. Take them."

"Yes!" His Cheshire grin changed into a full-beam as he grabbed the bag. His whole face lit up and Marinette next to him became even redder. "Do you mean that we're even then?"

She moaned something that he couldn't understand, both her hands cupped on her face now. Then, after a couple of minutes, she finally looked at him in that cringe-smile way that he used to associate with Marinette. It was really strange to see Ladybug behave so shyly in front of him. He found it cute. So cute.

"Are we going to eat here?" She finally said and they both looked around, but there was no seat to sit on that he could spot anywhere. "If so, you may want to transform," she continued.

Adrien had opened the bag of croissants and was already halfway the first one. "I assumed that, for our first date, you may have preferred this…" He pointed at himself, "Rather than the one wearing claws… was I wrong, Bugaboo?" He smiled at her cunningly.

The soft look in her eyes would have melted the ice on Mount Everest. "Are we on a date, Chaton?" She brought her arms to the nape of his neck and looked at him straight in the eyes, a cheeky smile curling her lips.

"That was the idea." His hand reached the nape of his neck and caught hers, wrapping around it and bringing it down. He put a soft kiss on the knuckles of her hand and looked at her intensely as he said it, with a shaky whisper, "I… I love you, Marinette. I… think I've always loved you, even before I knew you were Ladybug. But now I love you even more."

She gasped and her eyes filled with tears as he released her hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She sniffed loudly but held his gaze. "Nothing wrong; I'm so happy!"

Adrien wrapped her in a tight hug, and when he released her and looked at her again, he smiled his best smile. It wasn't his model smile, but the happy, sunny smile that lit his whole face and had earned him Alya's nickname of 'sunshine'. "I... thought of coming here because it's where we shared our first kiss."

She put a finger on his mouth. "Wrong, mon minou. This was the second. The first one was on the road."

True, he forgot about that one. "Doesn't count. I was possessed by Dark Cupid and was trying to kill you. I don't really like to think that as our first kiss!"

"But we both don't remember the one we shared here. Although if we had dropped our transformation inside the offices, now I know perfectly well why I was kissing you." She gave him a friendly poke on the shoulder. "I... love you, Adrien. You were the other boy… it was you all along!"

His face became really warm as his hand reached again the nape of his neck. "And there I was, thinking that you had a thing for Luka…"

Ladybug's eyes became as wide as saucers. "Well… I thought you were having a thing for Kagami, mister…" She raised an eyebrow as his face felt even warmer.

"Kagami? Uh… no… she's… she's just a friend…" If looks could kill, he would be dead. Adrien couldn't hold her gaze and stared sheepishly at his hands. "I… I know that once I asked-" he gulped awkwardly as he carried on rambling, "I asked you for advice on starting a relationship with her and… I don't blame you for having thought that I was with her but…"

"Yes… I wonder how I could ever have thought something as silly as that, Chaton…" was her snarky reply.

The floor suddenly looked very interesting. His face felt even hotter now, so he knew he must have been matching the colour of her suit. "...But it didn'ìt work out be-because… she loved me but.. I didn't… love her, I-I loved... you. Kagami and I are good f-friends and we help each other escape our p-parents…"

Ladybug's eyes were still as thin as slits, although a small blush had spread across her face when she had heard Adrien say that he loved her, again. "I see. Well, you know... even Luka is just a friend. A very good friend, in fact." She must have noticed his mortified look, because her gaze softened, as her lips curled in a cheeky smile. Her hand reached his cheek and gave it a soft stroke. "But nothing more than that, Chaton. You've got nothing to worry about."

"That's really good to know," he admitted; his face felt warm again under her touch.

The cheekiness of her smile was making her lips look way too tempting. And it wasn't fair that he couldn't remember any of the two kisses they shared, while at least she remembered the first one. So… Adrien did what he'd wanted to do too many times in the last few months. He tilted his head and firmly, pressed his lips to hers.

It didn't matter where they were or who they were. They were a boy and a girl in love. And nothing else mattered. Nothing at all.

.

Author's Note:

^-^ So here we are, that's the end. :'( Hope you liked it. I know… I'm so sad myself that it's come to a conclusion. It's been amazing the love I've received for it, thank you all so much for the comments, favs, follows, bookmarks and kudos! I'm seriously overwhelmed O_O! Please let me know what you think of this last chapter!

Thank you again to my wonderful betas, to my friend genxha and to the amazing people who helped me edit the story, from the miraculous discord server /5AQxgw

I'm planning other stories… I have the first chapter of two stories written and in the phase of editing. Hopefully I can get more chapters written in the next couple of weeks and start publishing before the end of the month. I also have another idea that I'm planning, but I will need to wait for September to publish that one (it's the rule of the fanzine it will be written for).

In any case, you will hear from me soon! Thank you all for your wonderful support again :)